Brooklyn, NY

August 2014

For Paul Liebrandt, the “teen years” were a bit different—he spent them working for chefs including Marco Pierre White and Pierre Gagnaire at their three-star Michelin restaurants. He also worked for Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and at the London outpost of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Vong. Eager to expand his culinary repertoire, the young Liebrandt looked to yet another continent, and another innovative chef, traveling to New York to work with David Bouley as chef de cuisine at Bouley Bakery.

In fall 2000, Liebrandt left Bouley Bakery for an executive chef position at Atlas, where he became the youngest chef to ever earn three stars from The New York Times, and in 2001, he become director of Papillon. Liebrandt continued honing his skills and culinary style at Gilt—where he won a 2006 StarChefs.com Rising Star Chef award—before finally opening his own restaurant, Corton, in 2008.

Corton served as Liebrandt’s primary outpost for close to five years, earning two Michelin stars in its first year. There Liebrandt melded traditions of classical cuisine with a contemporary, personal approach to ingredients and technique, and a graphic visual style. Liebrandt has since moved base to Williamsburg, for his latest, forward-thinking French restaurant, The Elm. In June 2011 he was the subject of an HBO documentary on the decade-long trajectory of a chef in New York City, “A Matter of Taste.”